Microsoft hires new VP of Corporate Communications yet again

Microsoft will be hiring Frank Shaw as its new corporate vice president for …

Frank Shaw, currently the president of Microsoft's public-relations firm Waggener Edstrom, is leaving the agency to become Microsoft's corporate vice president for Corporate Communications. Shaw will report to Mich Mathews, senior vice president for Microsoft's Central Marketing Group. Shaw expects to begin his new role on August 24 and will have a lot on his hands very soon with the upcoming releases of Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, the Zune HD, and Windows Mobile 6.5 devices. Shaw broke the news on his blog Glass House:

I've been incredibly blessed by my time at Waggener Edstrom on a professional and personal level. I've been able to work with some of the smartest communications people in the world, and have been encouraged to try new things, allowed to fail, been given challenges and opportunities that I never dreamed possible. And I've been able to work with Microsoft, a company who truly believes in the strategic power of communications. This is a big change in stride, for sure. I know there will be pains and gains along the way. But I am buoyed by the fact that I'll continue to work with many of the same reporters, teammates at WE and people at Microsoft as I have for the past several years, albeit with a changed view from my window.

Shaw's new position was most recently held by Simon Sproule, who has resigned from Microsoft and is joining the Renault-Nissan Alliance in Paris. Sproule was only hired in February 2009 and is already returning to the auto industry; he was hired away from Nissan, and before that worked for Ford. Shaw's solid background will likely help him perform better at the position than Sproule did.